Disciplinary and Departmental Effects on Faculty and Student Misconduct. ASHE Annual Meeting Paper.

This study investigated how academic norms, expectations and rules affect the experiences of graduate students, particularly in regards to reported academic misconduct at disciplinary and departmental levels. The study used a hierarchical linear analysis with data from a nationwide survey of 2,000 graduate students in chemistry, civil engineering, microbiology, and sociology. The survey asked participants about their doctoral programs, academic and social experiences in their departments, their mentors, and experiences with ethical issues and research misconduct. The analysis suggests that the most localized contexts in which graduate students live, the discipline and department, have a great impact on their exposure to misconduct, which appears to be a profound socialization experience. Rates of observed misconduct appear to be department and discipline specific, and alterable characteristics of departmental environments condition the exposure of graduate students to a wide array of different forms of behavior that conflict with the image of "the good scientist." Two appendixes present additional technical information about the survey. (Contains 36 references.) (JB)